Process of making extracts



(No Model.)

J. H. LORIMER.

PROCESS OF MAKING EXTRAGTS.

No. 394,191. Patented Dec. 11, 1888.

Mmwm 8'" I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN H. LORDIER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

PROCESS OF MAKING EXTRACTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 394,191, dated December 11, 1888. Application filed January 17, 1888. Serial No. 261,000. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN H. LORIMER, of the city and county of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in Processes for Extracting Soluble Substances, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has reference to an improved process for obtaining color or extracts from substances; and it consists in certain improvements, fully set out hereinafter.

In leaching dye-wood or tannic extracts for the purpose of obtaining the color or tannic acid in a soluble and concentrated form for the market it has been customary to resort to maceration at a high temperature, or percolation at a low temperature, and then concentrating the resulting weak liquors in a vacuum-pan. Maceration or boiling in closed or open vessels carries with it many hurtful substances, notably resinous matters, which interfere with the character of the coloring material sought to be extracted, and in tannic extracts from wood or ground or leaf sumac, galls, divi-divi, myrobolans, and kindred sources of tannic acid heat is damaging and percolation is very slow. For these reasons the processes heretofore in use are objectionable.

The object of my invention is to overcome these objections by dispensing with heat and providing a process which leaches all the coloring-matter or tannic acid from the substances treated. in a speedy and most efficient manner.

In carrying out my process I cause the material to be treated to pass in opposition to a current of water, so that the purest water meets the materials when nearly all or all of the coloring-matter or acid is removed and the solution leaves the materials entering. By this I am enabled to have the purestwater acting on the materials when they are in a' condition the most difficult to extract further color or acid, and the solution when holding plenty of coloring-matters in suspension or almost fully charged with acid is brought into contact with the fresh incoming material,

when the coloring-matter or acid is most easily given off. This process gives me the best and most economical results.

It is desirable that the materials be kept in a lengthy but moving contact with the solvent, be it water or any other liquid; and to do this I provide a series of leaching-vats so constructed that the material to be leached is gradually and automatically carried through and against a current of water or other solvent, the work being done with the minimum of labor and the maximum of efficiency. The number and form of these leaching-vats would be governed by the character of the matters being treated, and yet the general method or process of operating would always be the same.

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows a sectional elevation of my preferred form of apparatus for carrying out my process, and Fig. 2 is a modified form of apparatus.

Referring first to Fig. 1, X X X &c., represent a series of U-shaped leaching-vats, each having the vertical tubular legs A C, united at the bottom by the inclined passage B. In the C-legs I arrange a screw or worm, (Z, preferably formed of perforated metal or gauze. The upper part of such legs C connects with the upper part of the legs A of the next adjacent vat, so that the vats are connected in series. E is the entrance to the first vat for the material to be treated, and F is the discharge end from the last vat, from which the materials in their useless condition are conveyed to a furnace for combustion or to the waste-heap. Vater or other liquid solvent passes in at H to the last vat, and after pass ing through all of the vats'emerges at I from the first vat. The spiral conveyers or worms are constantly rotating, and the material, after passing down through the solvent in leg A, enters passage B, and is then conveyed up by the conveyer in leg B of vat X, and when it reaches the top it is fed over into the top of legA of the next vat, X, and so on until it leaves the last vat. At the same time the water or other solvent is flowing through the apparatus in the opposite direction and treating the material in the manner specified.

In place of using the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, that shown in Fig. 2 may be used, in which a large vessel is divided off into compartments Y Y Y &c., connected end to end, and having the inlet at E and outlet at F. The materials to be treated are conveyed through the compartments in succession by the conveyers G, having perforated paddlesl. The refuse passes into a well, J, from which it may be cleaned from time to time through a door, K. The solvent enters pipe H at the discharging end and circulates through the compartments in the opposite direction. to the passage of the materials being treated and flows off from pipe I at or near the charging end E. i

It is evident that this process may be used for other purposes than for extracting coloring-matter and tannic acid. 1

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l/The process of extracting soluble substances from materials,which consists in passing a continuous mass'of the material to be treated uninterruptedly through a solvent flowing in an opposite direction, and in which all of the material to be treated is at all times during the process in contact with the solvent.

3. The process of'extracting soluble substances from materials,which consists in causing a solvent liquid to flow downward and then upward in a suitable passage-way, and simultaneously therewith causing the material to be treated to pass downward and then upward through the same passage-way, but in the opposite direction to the flow of the solvent, and in which the downward movement is by gravity and the upward movement is by positive mechanical means acting throughout its movement, whereby the material is kept open and freely admits the passage of the solvent, and drawing off the solvent from the end of the passage-wayin which the material to be treated is admitted, and removing the material so treated from the end where the solvent is admitted.

In testimony of which invention 1 hereunto set my hand.

JOHN H. LORIMER. lV itnesses:

R. M. HUNTER, GEo. W. REED. 

